The Chronis Conspiracy
by Supreme.Empress.DragonGirl
Summary: Rose gets a call from the Doctor, early one morning. What starts as a chase through time and dimensions becomes a much deeper and more deadly plot, throwing them into a sinister web of lies and deceit. Can they reveal...the Chronis Conspiracy?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

In Which Rose Tyler Is Awakened Rather Early, and Forced to Flee London

Night lay like snow over the streets of London. Far from any waking citizens, in an alley in the outskirts, all was quiet and still. A discarded newspaper lay on the street. A stray cat peered out from behind a pair of rubbish bins. The streetlight flickered to life for a moment, and then winked out again.

A strange noise broke the silence, made the cat cower against the wall: a warping sound, like a distorted siren, muted and unknown. A gale rushed through the alley. The newspaper tumbled about and blew away. A point of light appeared near the eye of the unexpected storm, growing brighter and brighter, glowing like some oddly-shaped star.

The sound faded away, the gale died down, and the light went dark. The cat looked out from behind the rubbish bins, curious and afraid. The alley was as it had been a moment ago.

Except that now, where once there had been nothing, was an old-fashioned, blue police call box.

* * *

In an apartment, closer to the heart of London but not far from the alley, in a bedroom, on a table, amidst a ring of keys and a torch, a cell phone began vibrating. It rattled against the table loudly.

Rose Tyler opened her eyes and looked sleepily at her clock. "It's not two in the morning," she mumbled. "Who's _calling_ me...?"

She fumbled on the table for her phone and held it up, straining against a haze of sleep to read the writing. What she saw woke her up at once. "Doctor?" she asked, holding the phone to her ear.

"Rose," came the reply. "I'm waiting nearby, but not at the usual place. I need to talk to you. Hurry."

"What's going on? Why are you calling me at two in the morning? Where--" Rose blinked and held the phone away to stare at it as she heard the dial tone. He'd _hung up_ on her.

It didn't matter. She jumped out of bed. She was dressed in two minutes. She grabbed the torch and the keys. Her hand found the backpack she kept ready under her bed, and she slung it over her shoulder. She shoved the phone in her pocket and slipped out of her room.

Her mum was on the couch, asleep. The television was still on, humming in the darkness. Rose walked quietly across the room and undid the locks on the door. It moaned as she pulled it open.

"Rose?" Jackie Tyler's voice was sleepy. Rose turned on the threshold. "What time is it?"

"Er—not quite two," said Rose apologetically.

"What're you doing up so early?"

"Couldn't sleep," Rose said. "I'm going for a walk." Both of these things were true. She _couldn't_ sleep because of her phone, and she _was_ going to walk.

"A walk? At two in the morning? In the dark?"

"Mum!" Rose rocked forward on her toes. "I've got my torch, it's not like I'll just be wandering about blindly! I'm just going to take a walk."

"Mm," said Jackie disapprovingly. "Well, it can't be more dangerous than those adventures, with that Doctor...in his box...thing..."

She mumbled something about eight-foot-tall aliens and the United Nations, and she was asleep again.

Rose smiled slightly as she closed the door silently behind her and walked down a flight of stairs. Then, she broke into a sprint.

When she reached the end of the street, she pulled out her cell phone and opened the contacts. Before she could even select a number, the phone shook in her hand, and the word TARDIS flashed on the screen. "Doctor?"

"I forgot to tell you where I am," he said. Speaking quickly and quietly, he gave her the directions.

"I'll be here soon," promised Rose. The phone clicked, and she shoved it back into her pocket as she ran, her torch beam illuminating the ground before her.

She reached the alley and slowed. "Doctor?" she called softly. Bright green-gold flashed at her and she jumped, but it was only a cat watching her from the shadows. "Doctor, where are you?"

There was a creak from behind her, and she jumped as a hand grabbed the collar of her jacket and pulled her back. She twisted and landed hard on a smooth metal floor. "Hello, Rose," said the Doctor from above her. "Sorry about that, but I couldn't have you walking down the alley calling my name out for the whole world to hear."

"What's going on?" asked Rose. "Aliens? Is it an invasion of some far away planet, or an attack, or something? Are we in danger?"

"Yes, it's aliens, no, it's not an invasion, yes, we're in danger." The Doctor nodded and smiled at her.

Rose blinked. "You're _smiling_ like that," she said. "That means something's wrong."

Her cell phone hummed and vibrated against her leg. She pulled it out and glanced at the number. "Mum?"

"Rose! Where are you? What's going on? What's happened to you?"

"Mum! Calm down, I'm alright! I'm only taking a walk. No one's abducted me!"

"Well, what am I to think, when I wake up and come to check on you, to find you're gone? What am I supposed to think, when you've vanished from your bed at this ungodly hour and there's—I don't know—plastic things and great slimy green things and robots and who-knows-what wandering about?"

"Mum, calm down! I couldn't sleep!"

"Couldn't sleep? _Couldn't sleep?_ And you, who's never had a night you didn't sleep!"

"You would have sleepless nights, too, if you'd seen half the things I've seen," Rose said with a sigh.

"Why didn't you wake me up? Why didn't you tell me where you were going?"

Rose rolled her eyes and glanced at the Doctor. He was looking at her with that smile frozen on his face, his fingers tapping on the dashboard of the TARDIS. "Mum, you _woke_ up. I _told _you I was taking a walk."

"Where are you, anyways? Why are you taking a walk? It's dangerous, wandering about in the dark!"

"Mum! I'm _not_ wandering about!" She saw the Doctor motioning to her with one hand. _Hang the phone up._ She shook her head and mouthed, _wait one second!_

"Where are you then?" Jackie persisted. "No shops are open at two in the morning! Where've you gone, with your phone and your keys and your _passport?_" There was an edge to Jackie's voice on the last word.

Rose flinched. "Mum, I'm busy!"

"I know where you are! You're with your Doctor, in that—that big blue box-ship-thing—that _TARDIS_."

"Ye-es, Mum, I'm in the TARDIS," said Rose. "The Doctor wants me to hang up the phone."

"I don't like you going out there, Rose, you know I don't. All those aliens—all that danger..."

"Mum!" Rose held up a hand to keep the Doctor back as he stepped towards her. "We're busy!"

"Busy doing what, that's what I want to know! Running off to save some far-off planet? Fighting robots or—or statues, or—what are you doing?"

"I don't know, the Doctor hasn't told me--"

"What's so important you can't say goodbye to me?"

"I just told you, I don't know—just a moment! You know how she is!--Mum, you know he protects me! You know if I'm going to travel—which I am—there's no one who could keep me safer! You know that you'd rather have me out there with him than home, in danger, fighting aliens, without him!"

"Without him, there would _be_ no aliens!" cried Jackie.

"Mum, we're leaving! I have to go, now! Get your hands off my phone, I'm finishing up—and there would still be aliens, Mum, we just wouldn't know that they were there! Anyways, I've done it, it's too late. I have time energy, so I'm a target now. You're rather I was with him than alone, against that! You know he--"

She didn't finish, because the Doctor had managed to get her phone out of her hand. "Hello, Jackie," he said brightly, "I'd love to chat, but right now Rose is in danger, I'm in danger, and this phone call is being traced. Rose will call you in ten seconds. Goodbye!"

And with that, he hung up the phone.

Rose glared at him. "What was that for? I was nearly done—what do you_ mean,_ that phone call was being traced? Was someone listening?"

"No, tracing. Radio signals, Rose, how do you think cell phones work?"

"But Mum wasn't using a cell phone!"

"No, she was using a landline, which is worse because the wires can be followed more easily. Let's go." He began running around the TARDIS, pulling levers, pushing buttons, checking monitors.

Rose frowned. "How can I help?"

"You can't," said the Doctor cheerfully. "You don't know how to fly it."

She rolled her eyes. "If you _told_ me what to do, I could _do_ it. I'm not stupid!"

"No," he said.

"Stop treating you like a baby!"

"I'm not treating you like a baby. Babies don't get to travel through time in a spaceship."

"That's not what I meant," muttered Rose, but she was smiling. "Where're we going?"

"Can't tell you that," said the Doctor.

"Why are we leaving in such a hurry? Is there danger? Are we being followed?"

"Yes."

"Yes to _what?"_ When he didn't answer, Rose gave up. She looked around and spotted a thermos lying on the control panel. "What's in here?"

"Tea," said the Doctor.

"Tea?" Rose frowned. "Why do you have tea in the TARDIS?"

"Just in case of emergencies," he said.

"Emergencies? Like what? Is being hungry really an emergency?"

"No."

"So what kind of _emergencies_ require _tea?_"

"Just in case. You ought to know that tea is just what the Doctor ordered."

She smiled. "Except that you don't get tea in a thermos at restaurants."

"I didn't order it from a restaurant," he said.

"Where _did_ you get it?"

"Your mother, actually."

Rose laughed. "You've been keeping a thermos full of Mum's _tea_ in here?"

He nodded. "That's right."

She shook her head, grinning. "What kind is it?"

"I don't know. She didn't tell me."

Trust the Doctor to know so much about the universe, but not what kind of tea he had in his thermos. "Is it warm?"

"Of course it's not warm, it's been in the TARDIS for ages."

"Ages?" Rose shook her head again. "Hasn't it gone off?"

"It's _tea._ Though I should probably ask Jackie for some more when we get back."

Rose rolled her eyes, still grinning.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

In Which Our Heroine is Chased By Aliens

**A/N: No one seemed to care about it, so I was ready to not ever even post the second chapter of this story, but I decided to write one to celebrate, because my 200th email from was someone adding this to their Story Alerts! Reviews are much appreciated...enjoy!**

Rose sighed. She glanced down at her super cell and sighed again. The massive, confusing ship seemed like a confined, too-small space. When she was in the control room, the Doctor got on her nerves. When she went to sit somewhere else, she was lonely. Either way, she was sick to death of the TARDIS.

"I want to go home," she said gloomily.

"Well, you can't," said the Doctor.

"Why can't I?" asked Rose crossly.

"Because I can't take you. Because they'll kill you. All sorts of reasons."

"Well, then, I want to call Mum."

"You can't do that, either."

"Why not?"

"Because they can _find_ us with the signal!"

"Well, then, take me home!"

"Absolutely not, Rose!"

Rose glared at him. "You woke me up at two in the morning and told me to hurry up and get to the TARDIS. Then you took my phone and hung up on Mum. Now, we've been trapped in the TARDIS for more than twelve hours, because everywhere we land it's too dangerous to leave!" She crossed her arms. "And you won't even _tell_ me what's happening! You never keep me in the dark!"

"Well, I most definitely won't explain anything to a stubborn, pigheaded, stuck-up little girl!" shouted the Doctor.

"Why did you hang up the phone? I was almost done!"

"Believe me, I didn't want to!"

She laughed derisively. "You might have, if you knew what I was about to say! Not that I'm so sure about it, now."

"I know exactly what you were about to say," he said, and the anger was gone from his voice, replaced by weariness. "You know you can't go home, Rose, and you know very well why."

Why was she arguing with him? It was just like she'd argued with her mum. She shook her head slowly. "I'm sorry, Doctor, I really am. I'm just tired, is all. I forgot myself." She hung her head. "I just can't stop worrying. What if something happens to me? I argued with Mum. If I—if I don't come back... then I can't ever make up with her."

"I know, Rose," he said. "I know."

"I'm sorry for shouting," she said softly. "I didn't mean it, any of it. Even..."

"Especially."

She laughed, the life returning to her. _That_ line was worth twelve hours locked in the TARDIS. "Especially, then. I really am sorry, I'm just...not a morning person, I guess."

"Even though it's not morning anymore."

"No, it's a bit late for that excuse..." She smiled slightly and leaned her head against the wall of the TARDIS. "Even so, I'm going to get some of that sleep you stole from me."

"Yes," agreed the Doctor. Rose grinned to herself, and she was still grinning as she fell asleep.

The door of the TARDIS opening woke her. She glanced at the phone in her hand. It had been two hours.

"Can we get out of the TARDIS now?" she asked.

"Looks like it," said the Doctor warily. "Just take your torch, and your key. There's something here that prevents the TARDIS from showing up—you wouldn't understand it, it has to do with the atmosphere and the specific aliens nearby." He picked up something from a panel of the central controls and held it up. "Super cell phone, just like yours."

"I thought you didn't have one," said Rose, surprised.

"I didn't." He flipped the phone open and dialed a number.

Rose answered her phone. "I thought we weren't supposed to make calls."

"The TARDIS phone can't be traced, though yours can once the signal leaves the TARDIS," he explained. "Don't call me unless you need to. Stay close to the TARDIS, try not to use your own cell phone, and if anything attacks you, blind it with the torch, hit it over the head, and run."

Rose laughed. "I'll keep that in mind, thanks." She stood up, stretched, and stepped out onto the street.

She had wandered about for a while when she began to be a bit nervous. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled, and she shivered, though it wasn't cold. Something felt _wrong._ The Doctor had come with her to use his sonic screwdriver to get some money for her, and she felt the coins in her pocket. There was a pay phone nearby. She walked over to it quickly. Before inserting the coin, she checked her contacts for the TARDIS number. After she dialed, there were ten rings, before the doctor's voice said, "Hello, if you aren't Rose Tyler, wrong number."

Rose almost laughed, but she had a growing sense of fear and she knew the doctor wasn't in the Tardis. She tried calling his super cell, and got the same message.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a group of aliens approaching. She swallowed hard, stepped out of the phone booth, and bolted.

She didn't stop running until she'd reached the TARDIS. The aliens had followed her. She fumbled with her keys and inserted the TARDIS key into the lock, then darted in, slammed the door shut, and locked herself in.

She walked over to the TARDIS phone and dialed the Doctor's super cell. The phone rang, ten times, and the message played.

Something was going on. The doctor might ignore a call from an unknown number, but not from the Tardis.

WELCOME, COMPANION ROSE, said the screen over the phone. PLEASE, PRESS SEVEN IN THE CASE OF AN EMERGENCY.

Rose was not entirely sure this constituted an emergency, but she had to reach the doctor. She pressed 7 and dialed the number.

On a cold tile floor, like a small black island in a smooth, white sea, lay a cell phone. It was flipped open, but left alone on the floor.

On the screen flashed the words TARDIS CALLING. The phone rang urgently, shaking on the floor, but no one picked it up.

A moment later, the voice of Rose Tyler sounded on the phone. "Doctor? I'm locked in the TARDIS with aliens surrounding me. Why aren't you answering? _Where are you?_ Come back, and please, hurry."

The message ended. Still, no one answered the phone. It just lay, a solitary dark island in a floor tile ocean.

Rose sat against the control center of the TARDIS. Her cell phone was in one hand, and the TARDIS phone sat next to her on the floor. She knew that the aliens were still out there, watching her. Were they the same ones who had been chasing the Doctor?

While she was thinking of the Doctor, where _was_ he? Why hadn't he answered her calls, even though she'd called them emergencies?

She checked the time on her phone. An hour had passed since her last call. It was night now, and even it the TARDIS, she didn't feel safe at night on an alien planet. She thought about calling Jackie, but decided not to. She didn't know if the TARDIS phone was like her phone, anyways. She picked up the phone, pressed seven, and dialed.

The phone rang. The Doctor stirred slightly and opened it eyes. It was ringing loudly, more of a jangling. Something was wrong.

It jangled again. He looked at it. TARDIS CALLING, read the screen. He reached for it, but it was just beyond his reach. He tried to pull himself forwards, and found his feet couldn't move.

He shifted, reached into he pocket of his jacket, and pulled out his sonic screwdriver.

The phone rang for the third time. Rose blinked back tears of frustration and fear.

Four times. The Doctor reached for the phone with the screwdriver, trying to pull it closer. He managed to hit the _talk _button. "Rose!" he shouted. "Rose!"

Rose could have screamed, but it would have been with delight. "Doctor!"

"Rose! Can you hear me?"

"Of course I can!" Rose could hear odd noises, and then one she knew. "Why're you using your sonic screwdriver?"

"I'm not trying to," came to Doctor's impatient voice. "I'm trying to get the phone, which is a bit difficult when it's six inches away from the farthest my hand can reach, and I'm chained to the wall."

"Chained? Doctor, where _are_ you?"

"TARDIS!" he shouted. "Ask—the TARDIS!"

"The TARDIS? But--"

Footsteps were coming down the stairs. "54 minutes, 9 seconds, 27 milliseconds," he shouted.

"What? I don't--" said Rose, but it was too late. The phone went dead.

She stared at it for a moment, and bit her lip. She _wasn't_ going to cry, even though she was scared and alone. Fighting to keep her voice steady, she said, "TARDIS, where's the Doctor?"

The TARDIS hummed softly, and figures flashed across the screen. Then, a single message displayed in bright red letters.

"No," whispered Rose. "No. It _can't_ be."

But no amount of denial was going to change the message on the screen.

TARDIS SERACH FAILED. UNABLE TO LOCATE DOCTOR.

"No," whispered Rose again. She was going to have to find him another way.

**A/N: Dun dun dunnnn! Where is the Doctor? Who's been chasing them? What's Rose going to do now?**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

In Which Rose Comes to the Rescue

"Why?"

There was no answer.

"Try something else! This is important, I can hardly just go hunting through a strange city when there's aliens after me!"

Rose heard a voice from outside the ship. "We know you're in there. By the power given us by Chronis, we command you to come out."

"No, I don't think so," she shouted. "I have no clue what Chronis is, and I don't really care. I need to find my friend, so you need to go away, yeah?"

"Come out, in the name of Chronis!"

"Right, didn't think so," she muttered. "It was worth a shot." She drummed her fingers on the console. "TARDIS, what method of location are you using?"

"You cannot hide in there forever!"

"Watch me," she called. The screen flashed. ATTEMPTING TO TRIANGULATE. Rose shook her head. "No, TARDIS, that's not going to work. Locate the largest amount of time energy in the city."

She waited. A second later, the words flashed on the screen. LARGEST AMOUNT OF TIME ENERGY LOCATED.

"Is it the Doctor?"

NEGATIVE.

She scowled. "Find the next-largest amount of time—no, never mind. Take me there."

UNABLE TO EXECUTE COMMAND DUE TO PREVIOUS ORDERS. ORDERS MUST BE OVERRIDDEN BEFORE COMMAND CAN BE EXECUTED.

Before any more text could appear on the screen, Rose said, "With the Doctor missing, I , as his Companion, temporarily assume highest ranking in hierarchy for TARDIS command, and I say, override all previous orders."

LOGIC DOES NOT FOLLOW. ORDERS MUST BE--

"Override all previous orders, _now,_ because if you don't then the Doctor's as good as dead, and so am I."

ORDERS MUST--

"I don't care. Override, now. And...the password's "foreverwrose," if that helps."

OVERRIDING PREVIOUS ORDERS.

Rose glared at the letters. "Reading that hurts my head. Isn't there a better way to communicate? I mean, you are a telepathic hi-tech time-traveling spaceship."

_Apologies, Companion Rose._

Rose nearly jumped out of her skin as she heard an inhuman voice in her mind, a voice that wasn't speaking English but she could somehow understand anyway. "Right," she said, rather alarmed. "I guess I knew you could do that," she added after a pause. "You translate in my head all the time."

_Activate transport to location of largest nearby source of time energy?_

"Yes."

The engines kicked in, and Rose called, "Bye, creeps!" as loudly as she could to the aliens outside as the TARDIS faded away. A second later, there was a jolt, and she opened the doors.

The hallway she was in was dimly lit with poor lightbulbs. She could see the wiring hanging limply from the ceiling. The walls were made of brick and the floor was plain dirt. She had the nasty feeling she was underground. She shuddered. The hall—tunnel?--was well constructed, but even so, it wasn't a nice thought.

"Right," she said softly. "There's more time energy _here_ than even the Doctor has?"

Shaking her head, she walked slowly down the corridor. Around three corners, left when she reached a T, and another ten meters, she came across a flight of stairs. The stairs were covered with smooth, polished wood.

"Wood here, but not everywhere else?" she asked herself. And then she realized that it would be to save money. "Time will march on and on, and five billion years later money will still be the most important thing to the vast majority of the universe," she muttered in disgust, and hurried on.

She came to a door about halfway to the end of the hall. She stopped and looked at it for a moment. It was metal and looked like it might be codelocked and alarmed, but judging by the state of the lights and the dirt floor, whoever had built this place wasn't spending any unnecessary money. She didn't think she would have any trouble with the door.

"I'm coming in there," she said in her most threatening voice. "You'd better give me what I want because otherwise...otherwise...you'll be in big trouble." _That's lame,_ she thought, but it didn't matter. She opened the door.

The lights were even worse in here, mostly because more than half of them had burned out. She strained her eyes to see through the darkness. The floor in her was tiled, she noticed, and the walls were made of cinder blocks instead of bricks. She failed to noticed the single most interesting and important thing in the room until a voice called, "Rose? How did _you_ get here?"

"Doctor?" She saw him, then, pressed against the wall. "What is this place?" There was another flight of stairs in this room, leading up through the ceiling. "What's going on?"

"Yes, no idea, same." He shifted around, and she heard a clinking sound. "Could you possibly use the sonic screwdriver to unlock the metal things on my feet? It's not very comfortable to have them there, the fact that I can't move besides. I would do it myself, but my hands are cuffed as well and the combination of the two makes it quite hard to reach. And you haven't answered my question. Did they get you? Did you slip away? You can't fly the TARDIS, so how did you get here?"

"Told her to come. Emergency protocol."

"But you needed to override my orders to do that," he said, confused. She ran over and grabbed the screwdriver from his hand.

"Yeah." She attacked the cuff on his right hand.

"The TARDIS won't let you do that without the password." The cuff sprang open. He took the screwdriver and worked on freeing himself.

"I know."

"You know my _password?"_

"Mm-hm." She leaned against the wall, while he whacked his sonic screwdriver against the floor. "You know, you're missing a character."

"What?" He shook the screwdriver violently and tried it again. "I think it died. How do you know my password?"

"I found your note to yourself telling you what it was. No, I wasn't sneaking around in your room, it was in the hallway. No idea. Anyways, when you shorten _with_ to a _w_ you add a slash, yeah? You know, the diagonal line?"

"I know what a slash is, Rose. Aha! Finally!" He sprang to his feet. "Much better. Now, what do you say we get out of here?"

"Sounds good to me." She thought. "And I probably could have guessed your password. You're the most spontaneous person in the universe—improvise everything, don't even know what you're saying until after you've said it—but sometimes you can be _so_ predictable."

He scowled. "I am never predictable. Except sometimes, a little bit, when I sort of not exactly but in a roundabout way...well, when I am."

"Let's go."

He started to nod, then froze. "Sounds great. Except one thing."

"What?"

"Look behind you."

Slowly, Rose turned around. For a moment, she stared. She swallowed hard and took a step back. Then, she screamed.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

In Which There Is A Daring Escape

The aliens who'd been outside the TARDIS were standing in the doorway.

Rose backed up until she was right next to the Doctor. The aliens were ugly things, humanoid but with teeth like a walrus and scaly, light-brown skin. They leered at her and the large things in their hands like small barrels looked very much like weapons.

"So," she said. "These the things that were chasing us, then?"

"No idea." He must have seen the look on her face, because he immediately defended himself. "What? I never _saw _them! I just knew they were chasing us!"

"And when they captured you?"

"I, ah, well, I still didn't--"

"How did you not see them?"

"They snuck up behind me and hit me over the head, alright? Not hard enough to knock me out, but I was a little dazed, and they blindfolded me!"

"Right, then, that explains it," she said. Her hand found his. "Now, how 'bout getting out of here, yeah?"

"Sounds like a good idea." He looked around. "Got a plan?"

"Nope. You?"

"You know me. Improv's much more my style."

"Right. Improv it is, then?"

"Yep."

She locked her fingers with his. "Come on, then. What're we waiting for?"

"Stop this at once, in the name of Chronis!" shouted one of the scaly aliens as the pair of them shoved through them and raced up the stairs.

"Doctor," said Rose, "what's Chronis? They keep saying that word."

"No idea. Their deity? Who knows?"

"This way." She pulled him down the hallway. The aliens were in hot pursuit. This was getting tricky. It got even trickier when they started shooting. Dodging blasts, running, and remembering the way were very tricky to balance together.

It seemed like forever before they reached the TARDIS, but they managed to both stay alive and relatively intact. _Relatively _because the Doctor had stumbled and fallen, though he would be fine.

"Look at that," he lamented when they were safely inside with the doors locked. He showed her his arm, and she winced. His sleeve was torn to ribbons. He had scraped up his hand and forearm, and somehow acquired a nasty cut, from his wrist to his elbow and quite deep. "I think my arm is broken. And I'll bet that cut's infected. Now I'm going to become sick with some unknown bacterial illness and die, and then I'll have to go to the bother of regenerating."

She grabbed his arm and ran her hand down it, pressing the heel of her palm in perhaps a bit more than necessary, so he sucked a breath in through his teeth and screwed up his face in pain. "Your arm's not broken," she said.

"Yes, it is."

"Not, it's not. Stop whining. And I highly doubt that cut's infected, let alone with anything that will kill you. It does look pretty nasty, though. It's bleeding a lot--"

"I couldn't tell."

"--and could get infected pretty quickly if it's not cleaned. Hold your arm—the part that _isn't _hurt,Doctor—as tight as you can, that's right, and you just sit there and wait. And this will be easier if you're conscious, so put your feet up against the wall, yeah, so you don't pass out."

He gave her a withering look. "I'm not going to _pass out."_

"That cut is deep, and even a Time Lord can only lose so much blood before their brain doesn't have enough. Put your feet up like I told you to."

"How do you know all this?"

Now it was her turn to give him a withering look. "You told me to do that when I got a bad cut. And anyways, I've taken a medical class before, over the summer."

"Oh."

"Now, you stay there, like that, and wait." She pointed warningly at him, then left.

She returned a few minutes later, after having felt a jolt, with a long cloth plaster and some antiseptic. "What _are_ you doing?" She glanced at where he'd been, and was not really surprised that he was no longer there. "You know, for scolding _me_ when _I_ wander off, you certainly do it a lot yourself."

A moan of pain made her wince, and she walked around the console. The Doctor lay there, flat on his back, his hands limp at his sides.

"Oh, Doctor," she said, shaking her head and sighing. "I tell you stay as still as you can, don't move, and what do you do? You go and start up the TARDIS." She knelt down on the ground. He was barely conscious. "Come on, then, feet up. That'll get the blood back to your head, yeah?"

"Nnh," he said, trying to look at her but unable to focus.

She sighed again and propped his feet against the railing. She grabbed his arm and began cleaning the cut with antiseptic. He whimpered. "I know," she said softly. "It stings. That's good, it means it works. Better than getting an infection." She began bandaging his arm, all the way up to his hand. The bone might not be broken, but she could see by the way he held his hand that something was wrong. Probably just a sprain, certainly nothing serious, but not something she could just leave alone. Maybe for someone _else_ it could be left alone, but knowing the Doctor...it was better safe than sorry, at any rate.

"Rose," he said groggily, looking up at her. "Rose, I can't feel my foot."

She laughed. "Only one?"

"Yep. My...er...the one that's not the one I'm moving." He kicked his left foot against the railing.

She had to laugh. "A human wouldn't be able to feel either foot. Wonder why you can?"

He raised his eyebrows at her. "Hello? Time Lord? I've still got circulation on my _entire_ left side. It's only my right arms that's been lacerated."

"Oh, right." She made a face. "I can be so _thick_ sometimes, can't I?"

"On occasion," he agreed. "Can I put my feet down now?"

"Why?"

"Because my left foot is starting to get all...tingly. As in, about-to-go-numb tingly. And because you bandaged my arm, and I can think clearly, so they really don't need to be up there."

"Alright then." The TARDIS shuddered. "Oh, we've landed. Where did you send us, anyways?"

"London. You can visit with your mum, and everything."

"Alright. I'll apologize."

"Fantastic." He jumped up and flung open the doors. "Go on, I'll meet you there."

Rose nodded and flounced away. She was glad to be home.

**A/N: But still, mysteries hang over the heads of our favorite time-travelers! Who or what is Chronis? Why were they being chased in the first place? If you ever want to know the answers, well, REVIEW, so I'll write more and you'll find out!**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

In Which They Are Hunted By Daleks

When Rose came into the flat, she was immediately almost-strangled by Jackie grabbing her and pulling her into a bone-crushing hug. Rose barely even managed to say hello before the breath was knocked out of her. When she finally had her breath back, all she could think of to say was, "I'm glad to see you too, Mum."

"Ten seconds, you said ten seconds, you _always_ say that and it's _always_ longer, been a week, how are you, where's the Doctor, he alright, not running off without you again, honestly, sometimes I can't stand that man, he's doing well, then?"

Rose laughed. "Sorry, Mum. I'm fantastic, the Doctor's in the TARDIS, he's fine, he'd better not be, I know, and yes, we're both fine."

"Good. Go on into the kitchen, I'm making tea. Go get yourself something to eat, then, go on, I'll be there in just a moment."

Rose had just poured herself a cup of tea when she heard Jackie's piercing scream. The mug dropped out of her hand and shattered on the floor, spilling tea across the linoleum. Jackie came running into the kitchen and hid behind Rose. "There's a metal thing," she sobbed, "a great metal thing outside the window!"

"A metal thing?" said Rose, alarmed. "Mum, shush! Come on, hurry." She ran for the door and slipped out silently. Jackie followed, and she ran down the stairs as fast as she could. Behind them, she heard the glass shatter. "Keep moving," she commanded in a whisper, "and don't make a sound."

They ran, mother and daughter, Rose half-dragging Jackie along the road. She reached the street where the TARDIS was waiting, and stopped dead as she saw two Daleks in the way.

"There are more of them!" Jackie wailed.

"Mum, shut up!" Rose whirled and sprinted in the other direction. Jackie ran after her.

Suddenly, Rose found herself facing a wall. Dead end. She turned and saw three Daleks coming towards them. "Exterminate!"

"What do we do now?" Jackie cried.

"We think really fast," said Rose, glancing from side to side. There was no way out.

Suddenly, she heard a shout. "Oi! Yeah, over here, you tin cans!"

She turned her head to see Mickey shouting at the Daleks. They turned. "Exterminate!"

A hand grabbed hers from the other side, and she grabbed Jackie's sleeve as she heard the Doctor's voice hiss, "Run!" She followed the command without a thought, without hesitating. This was as natural as breathing.

The Daleks gave chase, but Daleks weren't the fastest aliens in the universe, and all of them, including Mickey, made it to the TARDIS relatively unscathed.

"I've got—just one question," panted Rose. "What—are Daleks—doing in London?"

"No idea," the Doctor said calmly. "Mickey, get inside." Mickey was standing outside, within the force field, shouting at the Daleks to _take that._ The Doctor pulled him inside and slammed the doors shut. Then he was off, almost a blur, jumping from place to place to place, his hands moving too fast for her eyes to follow.

"We can't just leave those Daleks to terrorize London," she pointed out.

"Look outside, but be quick about it."

She did. There were no Daleks, just a small circle of white dust. "A transmat...?"

"Yep."

She closed the doors. "But why?"

The TARDIS shuddered and jolted, making Jackie squeal in alarm, and Rose knew they'd entered the vortex. "I don't know." He frowned. "Well, yes I do. Maybe. That is, I'm not entirely sure, but I do have a vague guess. But don't in any way take my word for it, I've got no proof, it's only a theory--"

"Why would someone dump some Daleks in London to chase us, then transmat them away as soon as we're in the TARDIS?"

He sucked in a breath through his teeth, closed his eyes, and said, very quickly, "TheDalekswerejustadiversiondistractingusfromsomethingelse."

"The Daleks were—hold on, what?"

He gave an exaggerated sigh and repeated it, slower. "The Daleks may have just been a diversion to distract us from something else."

"So why did you go after them?"

"Because they--" he began, but broke off. "Because whatever else was going on wasn't endangering people's lives."

The TARDIS shuddered. "That was short," she commented.

He frowned. "No. We didn't land."

"Then why--" She was cut off as they were all tossed to the floor, and Jackie screamed piercingly.

"What's wrong with it?" shouted Mickey, grabbing hold of one of the tall branching pillars.

"I have no idea!" the Doctor shouted back as the alarm began to sound.

The whole ship jolted. Rose clung tightly to the railing, so hard the muscles in her forearms screamed in protest. The Doctor struggled to reach the console and braced his feet against the floor. He put his hands against the glass around the central energy chamber. The eerie, flickering blue light shone on his face. He looked strangely calm, almost surreal, with his eyes closed and his face still, given a ghostly quality by the light.

For nearly two minutes, he was like that, like a statue. Then, his eyes snapped open and that manic grin flashed across his face, the one that meant he was going to act all cheerful about something terrible. She braced herself.

"Someone came in here who wasn't supposed to," he said brightly. "That's all I could get out of her. Someone came in here who wasn't supposed to be in here and who...knew about her."

"As in, knew this was _not_ a police box? And what's that mean for us?"

The floor jolted, throwing him to the floor. Jackie screamed again. He staggered to his feet and walked across the grating to stand right in front of Rose. "Sabotage," he breathed in her face, his eyes glinting darkly.

She shuddered. "But who...?"

"I have no idea." He stepped back ad reached up to grab hold of a beam above his head. The TARDIS shuddered again. "Brace yourselves, ladies and gentleman, because it's going to be a rough landing."

**A/N: Sabotage?! But how? Why? What are they going to do? How will they survive the trials ahead? How will they escape? How will they get rid of Jackie and Mickey? Why were Daleks chasing them through London? And what _is_ this Chronis? Read, review, get answers. :P**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

In Which There Is A Great Deal Of Panicking

"We're going to die!" wailed Jackie loudly, clinging to the pillar. "We're going to die!"

"Shut _up_, Mum!" snapped Rose. "We're not going to die!"

Jackie whimpered, but kept her mouth shut. The Doctor began running around the console, frantically flipping switches and twisting dials. Nothing seemed to happen. He slammed his hand down on the console in frustration and spat a spiky word which was not translated.

"Translator broken?" asked Rose, smirking.

"Probably," he growled. "Everything's shot." There was a _clank._ "Ow."

The TARDIS jerked again, and the room was filled with a high wail, mixed with the sound of the alarm. "What's _that?"_ asked Mickey, alarmed.

"TARDIS," the Doctor said. "She's hurt. We're--"

He broke off as the floor jerks even more violently and he was thrown backwards against a pillar. Rose winced at the loud _crack_ and watched in horror as he slid down, his head lolling to the side, out cold. "Doctor!" she screamed, and would have run over to him if the floor hadn't jerked again.

Suddenly, everything was still. Still and quiet. The light of the central column went out, and everything was in pitch darkness.

"Where's the door?" came Mickey's disembodied voice.

Rose tried to see, but there wasn't any light at all. "No idea. Someone try and find it. Don't trip on me." She got on her hands and knees and crawled along the floor until she found something. It was alive. Good. "Doctor?"

No answer. Bad. She sat up and put her hand on his head, running her fingers along the back of his messy hair. Her hand found something wet. Bad, bad, bad. Very bad.

"Here," said Jackie. Rose could hear thumping. "It won't open. It's stuck."

"That's not good." She followed Jackie's voice. There were the doors. She tried them. They wouldn't open. "Ooh, that's _really_ not good."

"Hey, doesn't someone have a torch? We need some—ow!" Mickey had obviously tripped and went sprawling. "What's that?"

"Be _careful!"_ she snapped. "That's the Doctor!"

"Why won't he wake up? Is he--"

"No! Don't even _say_ that. He's hurt, badly. We need help." There was a soft moan around them. Rose closed her eyes. "Alright, that's good, the TARDIS is alive, just not working. Come on, girl, some light? _Please?"_

The lights didn't come on.

"Didn't think so," she sighed. "Alright, then." She found her torch and flicked it on. "Let's see what we can do." She examined the doors. "Right, that's out. They're, I dunno, jammed up against something."

"So we're trapped, now?" asked Jackie, her eyes wide with fear.

"Yeah, that's right." Rose turned the torch past Mickey, who was standing near the controls, to focus the beam on the Doctor. He didn't look good. His face was ashen, and she could see a smear of blood on the pillar behind him. "Okay, not good."

"What?" asked Jackie, looking over her shoulder.

"The Doctor." She flashed the light around. "Here, Mickey, go see if you can find some light—the TARDIS will help if she can, but don't hope for too much." She tossed him the torch, and heard the smack as his hand snatched it out of the air. "Mum, stay where you are." She walked over to the Doctor and knelt down. "Doctor, can you hear me?"

He didn't answer. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. _Stay calm, stay calm._ Carefully, she laid her hand first on the right side of his chest, then on the left. Both hearts working fine, if beating a bit slowly.

He moaned softly, then, and stirred. "Rose?"

"Sh," she said. "Stay still."

"What...happened?" he asked, trying to push himself up.

"Shh-shh-shh, just sit still," she repeated, holding him still. "We crashed. You hit your head, but you're going to be fine."

"The TARDIS," he said weakly. "Is the TARDIS alright?"

"She's alive," she said shortly. "That's as good as it gets for now."

"My head..." He raised a hand to feel the back of his skull and winced. "Ow."

"Shh," she said, trying to calm herself and him at the same time. "We're going to get out of this. Somehow."

"I...d'you know where we are?"

"No idea." She took his hand. "It's alright, though. We'll be alright." He struggled to sit up, but she stopped him. "Will you just _stay still?"_

"Nope," he said, and she didn't have to see his face to know he was grinning. "Not me. I never stay still, no, always moving, me, always running or fighting or chasing or being chased or dashing around the console to get us to the next place, where we'll do more running, and fighting, and chasing, and being chased..."

Rose laughed. "That's right," she said.

Mickey returned, carrying three torches and a lamp. He set the lamp on the floor and turned it on. Light flooded the room.

"Thanks," said Rose.

She stood up and went over to the doors. They were still blocked. She hadn't expected anything else.

"We'd better hurry," she said. "I'd be willing to bet that whoever messed up the TARDIS isn't done with us yet."

**A/N: I know, I know, this one wasn't great. The next one will be better, I hope...anyways. I have a plan for AFTER they get the TARDIS fixed...until then, I'll do my best. Please stay with me!**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

In Which Rose Is Annoyed for Many Reasons

Rose leaned against the doors, wincing every time she heard clanking and clattering. She was as anxious to find out what was going on as anyone, and that clearly wouldn't happen while they were stuck here, but she was not of the opinion that the Doctor was ready to fix the TARDIS just yet.

But of course, no sooner had she wrapped a makeshift plaster around his head than he was under that console, hunting for the problem. Rose had asked Jackie to go find _anything_ to use so he didn't bleed to death. Jackie had gotten the first thing she found, which happened to be a sheet. Which now had one end cut off. Not that it mattered.

And of course, the second she'd finished tying the strip of bedsheet around his head, he'd jumped up, pulled up part of the floor, and dove under the console.

"I think I found it," called the voice of the Doctor, echoing up from under the console.

"Great," said Rose. "And?"

"And what?"

"What is it?"

"Er..." He didn't speak for a moment.

"What's wrong?"

"Well, the, ah, electrocerinalical disterilationizer..."

"In English, please."

"She's broken," he said in a small voice.

Rose sighed. "We know. What's _wrong?_"

"Er...the...uh...the thing that does...some stuff...to some electric stuff...isn't working."

She had to laugh at that. "Right. How can you fix it?"

"Well, ah, there's a slight difficulty, due to the fact that the, er, electric stuff is, um, a signal...to the rest of the ship...and, er, there could be some severe damage to the, ah, well. There could be severe damage."

"Which means?" she asked, getting impatient.

His voice was, if possible, even smaller. "I can't fix it. Which," he added hastily as he climbed up from the underside of the console, "does not mean we're trapped here forever. Of course not. The TARDIS just has to...fix herself."

"Oh," she said. "How long will that take?"

"Er...couple of days," he said in a trying-too-hard-to-be-casual sort of way.

She fixed him with her best imitation of Jackie's death glare, which was not something to be scoffed at. "How long will it take?"

He took a deep breath. "Upsideofsevenytwohoursbutlessenahundredtwenny."

"Sorry?" she asked, caught off guard.

"Somewhere between three and five days."

"Oh." She frowned, scuffing the toe of her trainer on the floor. "Can we have some lights?"

"No," he said. "She has to focus all her energy and attention on repairs."

"Oh."

He grinned. "Haven't you got anything better to say, Rose Tyler?"

She frowned. "Not when you're talking TARDIS-techno-talk. It's easier to respond when I have a clue what you're talking about."

"I wasn't."

"You weren't what?"

"Talking TARDIS-techno-talk."

"Oh."

"There, you're doing it again! All you can say is "oh." It's like you haven't got anything to say. I know they say "if you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything at all," but you always have something nice to say, because you're a very nice person, well, when you're in a good mood, and when you're happy, or at least not particularly annoyed at me, you get that from your mother—being nice when you're not annoyed with me, that is, at least I'd guess so, it's hard to tell, with her being annoyed at me twenty-five hours of the day and everything..."

Rose stared at him, grinning, and shook her head slowly.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"What?" he persisted, his eyes wide. "Why are you looking at me like that? What did I do? What is it?"

She laughed. "You're just so—you."

"What, did you expect something else?"

"He's mad," commented Mickey.

"Course he is," said Rose, beaming. "Wouldn't have him any other way." Half a second too late, she realized what she'd said, and glanced apprehensively at Jackie to see her mother's reaction. But Jackie was only watching with a curious expression on her face: vaguely happy, but also rather sad, shadowed by longing and with a certain understanding.

Rose wondered what it meant.

Four days later (by her watch, at least), the lights came back on. The Doctor sprang to his feet immediately. "Ah, brilliant! We'll be off, then?"

"Set the course," said Rose, becoming immensely more cheerful.

"Alright," he said. "First stop, London. England. Earth. Briefly. To get rid of _you_ two." As he said the last, he pointed at Jackie and Mickey.

He set the course. Rose leaned on the console. "Tired of them already?" she asked, teasing.

"I could have never met them and I'd have had too much of them," he retorted. "I don't need any stupid apes on my ship, thanks."

"You have a stupid ape on your ship," she pointed out. "I'm a human."

"Ah, no, you're mistaken. An ape you may be, but you're a very _clever_ ape."

She laughed. Over the back of his head, she saw Jackie roll her eyes and look at Mickey. But she caught a flicker of that expression again, that muted joy, that hidden sorrow.

She moved to stand next to Jackie. "What're you thinking about, Mum?"

For a moment, Jackie didn't reply. Then, she said, quietly "Oh...nothing. We've got to be nearly there."

"It'll be a moment," said the Doctor. "Maybe...five minutes? Taking it slowly—fixing such a major problem requires a lot of energy, you know. We'll be stopping in Cardiff, and the pair of you intruders can take a train back to London."

"Oh, that's nice," said Jackie indignantly.

"Yeah, don't even drop us off at the door," Mickey agreed.

"Well, no real reason to make more than one stop on Earth," was the Doctor's reply.

Rose sighed. "Honestly." She took her mum's sleeve and pulled her aside. Very, very quietly, she murmured, "Really what's on your mind, Mum?"

"Private conversations should be publicly announced to be private," the Doctor told her before Jackie could answer.

"Doctor! We're trying to talk! It'd be great if you'd please stop sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong, yeah?"

"Done."

"Mum," Rose insisted. "Tell me."

Jackie looked away. "It's nothing, Rose." She paused, then said, "I may not like it, but it's not a bad life, is it?"

"No," Rose whispered. "It's not a bad life at all."

"I can see that you're happy," said Jackie. She almost smiled, but not quite. "I still worry about you. It's dangerous, this life of yours. But in the end, I don't think there's a safer place in the universe. I'd like to see anything try to hurt you when he's here to protect you."

Rose was touched. Her mum had once despised the Doctor with all her being. Now...Jackie had changed. She opened her mouth to say something, but the Doctor's voice interrupted her.

"Something's wrong," he said. As he did, the TARDIS shuddered and moaned.

"You mean she's not better yet?" said Rose, alarmed. "We're not going to crash again?"

"No, the TARDIS is fine," he said. "It's the vortex that's wrong..."

"What do you mean, the vortex is wrong?"

"Something's wrong with it! It's all...off. The TARDIS doesn't like, it, and neither do I." He frowned. "It makes her hurt, and when she hurts, it gives me a headache."

"Are we not going back to Earth, then?" asked Jackie, sounding dismayed.

"No, we're going to Earth," he replied grimly. "It's not just one spot that's off—it's a whole trail, and it leads straight to London."

**A/N: Oooh! Something wrong with the time vortex—and in a trail that leads to London? Mysteriouser and mysteriouser! What's going to happen now? Well, you know the drill—review and I'll update! Or don't, and I'll probably still update, but it'll be sooner if you do...maybe...**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

In Which Our Hero and Heroine Go to a Party

"London?" asked Rose. "London's big. Can't you pinpoint an _exact_ location?"

"Yes, I can pinpoint an exact location." He gave her his most disapproving, condescending, disdainful, disgusted, absolutely withering look. "I already have. I can't just go landing the TARDIS in the middle of someone's front lawn, now, can I?"

"Sorry," she said quietly, pulling back a little. "I should have assumed..."

He didn't meet her gaze. "'S alright." There was something forced about his cheerful tone.

The TARDIS shuddered. They'd landed. "Here we are, then," said Rose brightly. She flung open the doors. "I'll call you later, Mum."

"Yeah," said Jackie, and left. Mickey gave Rose a half-hearted, one-armed embrace, nodded to the Doctor, and followed suit. The doors closed, and all was silent. Rose didn't dare speak. The Doctor looked around the control room, his gaze falling anywhere but on hers.

"Why are you mad at me?" she asked after a moment.

He grinned apologetically. "I'm sorry, Rose. Suppose it did come across that way." He ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm just worried about what's causing this disturbance in the vortex."

"Right," she said, and laughed it off. "So, where are we headed, then."

He smirked. "To a party."

"Oh, alright, that sounds--" she began, and then stopped. "To...a..._what?"_

"A party," he repeated.

"Please, _please_ tell me we're not going to pretend to be kitchen staff."

"We're...not...going to pretend to be kitchen staff," he said hopefully.

She looked at him. "Are you saying that because we're not, or because I told you to?"

"Which one would you prefer?"

"That we're _not."_

He shrugged. "Sorry."

She sighed. "Alright, then," she said, and went to get changed.

The huge manor house that stood in one of the richest areas of London belonged to Mary and George Woodfield. The Woodfields were not important or famous, but they were very, very rich. The party that night was filled with a great many guests, some of which were important, some of which were famous, and all of which were also very, very rich.

In the rather grand main hall, the entrance to the manor, the guests were milling about, chatting, in the light from the massive chandelier above their heads. The door to the kitchens sat between the two sweeping flights of stairs. Just outside that door, two of the servers were talking. Or, at least, two people who _looked_ like servers were talking.

"Remind me again why we're doing this?" said Rose, rather annoyed.

"I explained that last time we did this," the Doctor said calmly.

"Yeah, well," she muttered.

"Calm down," he said, grinning at her. "Just trust me."

"Isn't this a bit domestic for you?"

"Oh, shut up."

He vanished into the crowd, and Rose decided she might as well try and find out what she could.

By the time she had to return to the kitchen, it had been nearly half an hour and she hadn't found out anything. As she filled her serving platter with little snacks again, she heard one of the kitchen girls talking to some of the others. Something about an allergy to cinnamon. What an odd thing to be allergic to.

The Doctor came in as she was about to leave. "Found out anything?" he asked her in an undertone.

"Not really," she sighed. "That girl with the dark hair is allergic to cinnamon, and that's about it."

"Really. Ah, well. Listen, one of the guests caught my attention. She's got...dark, curly hair and a sparkly sort of dress on. She looked like a lot of them do, but the thing is, she wasn't acting like them. Seemed to think she was better than them, you know? Looking down her nose at everyone." He leaned closer. "You think you can find out more?"

"Why can't you?"

"Because I'm pretty sure she's not the one messing up the vortex," he said. "I'll find our little problem, but someone should keep an eye out."

"Right. See you later, then."

She slipped away and located the woman. She certainly _did_ seem haughty. She laughed, and talked, but she seemed to think everyone here was a step below her, or something. It was the way a ruler might treat her subjects. Or the way...

"Strange," Rose whispered. "She acts like everyone here is on the same level. Haughty and just a little condescending, but like we're all the same. Sort of like the Doctor thinks of humans, 'least the ones who aren't me..."

She shook her head. It was probably just coincidence. But it was still strange.

"Would you like something to eat, ma'am?" she asked politely.

"Why, thank you," said the haughty woman, and reached out her hand. An inch from the snacks, she paused. Her gaze fixed on Rose, a mixture between surprised, disbelieving, and...angry? Then it was gone, and she went back to her conversation.

And that was the best Rose got.

When she returned to the kitchen this time, the Doctor was already there, waiting. So was the dark-haired girl who was allergic to cinnamon and a sandy-haired boy about the same age as Rose.

"Find anything else?" asked the Doctor as Rose came over.

"Not really," she said. "You?"

"Nope." He ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm beginning to think this was a false lead."

Rose looked at the cinnamon girl across the kitchen. "Yeah." Cinnamon-girl took a sip of water. "Might have been." Cinnamon set the water down.

"Well, we might as well stay," he said. "Be suspicious if some of the servants just vanished."

Rose was about to answer when Cinnamon crumpled to the floor.

Another server was just walking in when it happened, and she screamed and dropped a platter on the floor. Glass shattered everywhere. Rose ignored it and knelt down next to Cinnamon. "She's just fainted," she called. "Seems like she's having trouble breathing." She saw marks spreading down the girl's throat.

The Doctor stepped over her and dipped his fingers in the water Cinnamon had been drinking. He tasted it, and then shouted, "She's having an allergic reaction!" He sat next to Rose and started giving the kitchen staff orders. "Everyone else, clear back. We need someone to make sure she can breath, but she needs air." Rose backed away, and he stayed. "Does anyone know if she's got a kit?"

"She hasn't," said the girl who'd broken the tray. "She never though she'd need one."

"Rose," he commanded, "I need you to go down the third hall, second right, third left, down the stairs, through the closet, take a left, first door on your right."

"Right," she said, and sprinted away.

It took her five minutes to get back to the TARDIS, and nearly ten more to find the room. Why did this ship have to be so _big?_ At least nothing had moved around. She just hoped she wasn't too late.

Cinnamon was in worse shape when Rose got back, but she was better quickly enough. "Lie still," the Doctor commanded as she began to wake up.

Rose giggled. "Rest—it's just what the Doctor ordered."

"Oh, shut up," he told her, grinning at her pun. "You, girl—what's your name?"

"Sarah," said the girl who'd dropped the tray.

"Sarah, you come over here and keep her still. Boy, what's yours?"

"Um, um," stammered the boy. "Andrew."

"Andrew, you...clean up the broken glass. Then go get back to work."

"Yessir," said Andrew nervously.

"Rose," the Doctor said. "I want you to just get back out there, but I need you back here in... fifteen minutes. Can you do that?"

"Yeah," said Rose, and picked up her platter and left.

"Snack girl, I've been looking for you," said a voice form behind. Rose turned. It was the haughty lady.

"I'm sorry," said Rose. "We had a bit of a scare in the kitchen."

"A scare?" Haugty's eyebrows went up. "What sort of scare?"

"A girl, with an allergy...she somehow got cinnamon in her water. We were quite worried, but she'll be alright."

"I see," said Haughty. "How, may I ask, did you know for sure that there was cinnamon in the water?"

"Er—a friend of mine," Rose said.

"And this girl had a...what do you call them? A kit?"

"No, er, my friend gave her...something."

"I should like to meet this...friend," said Haughty.

Rose swallowed. "Well, er, he's...in the kitchen..."

"Does he have a name, your friend?"

"John Smith," she said at once, the lie coming easily to her tongue.

"I see." Haughty seemed suddenly less so. "Will you allow me to speak with him?"

"Not my place to refuse you," said Rose, and led the way into the kitchens.

Haughty followed, and stopped in the doorway. Cinnamon still lay on the floor, but her eyes were open and she was breathing normally. Sarah was next to her. The Doctor was leaning against the counter. He looked up as Rose came in, and saw Haughty in the doorway.

Haughty stepped forwards and held out her hand. "I'm Tyirasamovarien. It's a pleasure to meet you, Doctor."

**A/N: Here you go—something really interesting is happening at last! Who is Tyirasamovarien, and how does she know the Doctor? How in the world did cinnamon get in the girl's water—and was it really just an accident? (That name, by the way, is TEA-a-ROSS-a-ma-VAIR-ee-en.) Read and review and get answers to all your questions! Or at least some of them. :P**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

In Which They Make a New Acquaintance, and Finally Get Some Answers

The Doctor frowned, and reached out to take Tyirasamovarien's hand, but she pulled back. She touched two fingers of each hand to her temples, and then crossed her arms across her chest and touched her shoulders.

He stepped back, slightly surprised. He thought for a moment before he returned the gesture, but reversed. Tyirasamovarien nodded slightly. "Well met," she commented.

"I suppose you must be quite the historian," he said dryly. "There aren't many who know that."

"You know it well enough, if it took you a moment to remember," she pointed out. "Shall we go to somewhere more...private?"

"Rose, would you care to go somewhere less public?"

"Sure, I guess," said Rose, rather confused. "Who's she?"

"You may call me Tyira," said Tyirasamovarien over her shoulder. "I know a room that should be empty." She led them away from the kitchen, into a dark room. They say down, and she began to speak. "You're probably here because of the disturbance in the time vortex, no? Well, I should tell you now, before anything else, I've got it covered. There's only one of them, and I don't need help."

"There's only one of _who?"_ asked Rose, becoming very annoyed with all the mystery. "You've got _what_ covered?"

"Your friend is most impolite," began Tyira.

"His friend is sick and tired of not knowing what's going on, and so's he!" Rose said. "We were hunted by scaly aliens through time and space, because of something called Chronis. He was _chained_ to a _wall_ because of this Chronis thing! I was chased through London by a Dalek, and someone sabotaged our ride, and we were trapped on some desolate planet for _four days!_ I want to know what's going on!"

Tyira was taken aback. "The only member of Chronis," she said evenly. "Chronis is...how to put it? They're dangerous, very dangerous. We don't know what they want, but we—the Keepers—we've been working against them for centuries."

"Chronis," said Rose. "That's from Greek mythology. On Earth. Chronos. It's the root for chronological and chronic. It means...time."

"Clever girl," said Tyira, impressed in spite of herself. "For a human. Yes, it does mean time, or relating to time."

"So Chronis are the ones who're playing with the time vortex."

"That they are." It was clear the lady was pleased, but her face darkened. "They use forbidden technology to move through time and space. Forbidden by the Time Agency, forbidden by us. It's a good idea in theory, the shifters they use—technically they're called spatial-temporal shifters, but that's beside the point. The point is, in practice, the shifters are dangerous. They can jump a lot of people into the vortex at once, and then they sort of—rip up the vortex. Take a whole chunk of it out. It's bad enough when only one person's using it. Imagine a whole society of people using these things all over the universe, usually to transport massive groups over huge distances."

Rose could not imagine that, and had no idea what it might mean, but one look at the Doctor's face told her it was very, very bad. He'd gone pale, and his chocolatey eyes were very wide and very afraid and very, very angry.

"They're using these spatial-temporal shifter things to rip out a whole section of the vortex, as small as one person or as big as they bloody need it to be, and stick it somewhere else?"

"Yes, that's about it." She sighed, pushing her dark hair back from her face. "You wouldn't _believe_ the mess it causes, and all I can say is I'm glad to be recon and retrieval, not repairs."

"Oh, I'd believe it, alright," he said darkly. "This is an absolute disaster."

"What I want to know is why you're a target," said Tyira. "You're just time travelers. Unless you've stumbled on some great secret of theirs, which you clearly haven't, I don't know why they would do this. I mean, if you accidentally, unknowingly messed something up, I can see them sending some henchmen. But a Dalek? Even form Anatrius, that's a bit extreme."

"Anatrius?"

"I've had the misfortune to meet him in person. He's a member of Chronis. Very melodramatic. No idea what he looks like..."

"But you just said you've met him," Rose protested. "How can you not know what he looks like?"

She rolled her eyes. "For such a clever little girl, you're very _dense._ A Keeper doesn't just walk away from a meeting with a member of Chronis. The more peaceful of us—her Ladyship, for one—still can't stand the lot of them."

"So you killed him?" asked the Doctor.

She laughed bitterly. "One can hope! I blew up the building, but he was too cocky, too confident. He's out there."

"You do realize I've got no clue what either of you is going on about?" Rose put in.

"How can you not understand?" asked Tyira.

"I'm not sure _I'm_ understanding, and I'm ten times as smart as she is," said the Doctor.

"You're _not._"

"Am, too." He saw the look on Tyira's face—disapproving and irritated—and cleared his throat. "Anyways. Rose, Tyirasamovarien...and, I suspect, most of Chronis...are Time Lords."

She swallowed hard, opened her mouth, tried and failed to speak. She took a deep breath, swallowed again, and gave it another shot. This time, she managed, "Impossible."

"You doubt it?"

"There aren't any Time Lords," she said. "Well, only...one. Him. The Doctor."

"Which brings me back to my question," said Tyira. "Who are you, Doctor? Why are you a target? What have you done to anger them?"

"I'm the protector of the universe," he said quietly. "I'm the lone guardian, the single protector. I'm their worst nightmare. That's what I've done to anger them." He stood, walked off, then turned around abruptly. "How old are you, Tyirasamovarien?" He walked slowly closer to her. "Younger than you act. Old enough to remember the Time War?"

She froze. "Yes," she said after a moment. "Old enough to remember that."

He nodded. "I know. I can tell. It's in your eyes. You saw what happened. Can you tell me how it is you escaped? How you managed to flee without anyone knowing? How the destruction of Gallifrey didn't kill you with the rest of us?"

"Not really." She looked at the floor. "I know that someone—her Ladyship—helped us to get away. There weren't that many of us—she was the oldest, and then the twins, Valin and Jynna. The rest of us were young, only children. I was one of the older ones, maybe right after Valin and Jynna. There must have been, oh, fifteen of us, maybe twenty. We were trying to escape, and then..." She trailed off.

"And then?" prompted the Doctor.

"We were found. There was...a fight. I never was sure who we were fighting. We all tried, we did, so hard...you wouldn't believe a bunch of little kids could put up such a fight. But they were—were too strong. Valin and Jynna..."

At this, her voice broke, and she dropped her head to her chest. The Doctor looked uncertain, awkward, and not a little bit alarmed. Rose rolled her eyes at him in exasperation, then cross the room to sit next to Tyira.

"'S alright," she said softly, feeling very sorry for the Time Lord lady. "You don't have to tell us."

"They tried to protect us," she whispered. "They tried. And they died for us. Both of them. I can still remember it..." She swallowed. "Valin, they got him with some sort of concentrated beam. Two concentrated beams, actually. Stopped both his hearts at once. He was dead, really dead, before he hit the ground. First life, and he didn't even stand a chance." She bit her lip. "Jynna kept fighting—she wanted to avenge him. But some part of her died when he did. She didn't want to live. She was like a storm, it was insane—but they got her, too. A cut on her throat. She bled out, could have regenerated, chose not to."

"I'm so sorry," said Rose. "That must have been terrible."

"But the way they looked—after it was over—she, her Ladyship, I mean, she got us away from the planet, and then we had a right funeral for the pair of them. They were both in their best clothes for the ceremony, and they looked so perfect, lying there next to each other, so peaceful. They weren't the only ones who never saw the destruction."

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said, sounding like a faint echo of Rose. "I'm so sorry."

"There was only one person there, fighting us, that I knew the name of," whispered Tyira. "He was called Anatrius."

"Anatrius," said Rose, and suddenly, her eyes widened. "Andrew!"

"Who?" asked Tyira.

"Oh, no," said the Doctor.

"He works in the kitchen," Rose explained rapidly. "He was in there when that girl, the one with the cinnamon allergy, collapsed. It _is_ an awfully odd coincidence that there just _happened_ to be cinnamon in her water, isn't it?" She thought. "And I'm sure I heard someone—one of the usual staff—say there were three newcomers tonight. That means someone else just showed up, tonight. Psychic paper gets you past the security, you know, but it doesn't get you past the real memories of real people."

"Of course," said Tyira. She sounded angry. "That _is_ his style—his very personality is poisonous.

"In that case," said the Doctor, "it seems like we know our enemy. Now it's time to get him."

**A/N: This is the chapter you've all been waiting for, I'm sure! Finally, we have an idea what's going on! Poor Tyira (that's Tie-EE-ar-a, by the way). She's sort of an important character. **

**And did you notice? Chapter names! I'll go back and do the other ones, too. :P**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Tenth chapter! Yes! Hope you enjoy it muchly. **

Chapter Ten

In Which They Make a New Friend, as well as a New Enemy

Tyira stood up. As she did, she looked at the Doctor and said something. Rose blinked. It was another language, and it wasn't a language at all; the words weren't words, the voice she used was not a voice. It was beautiful and terrible and Rose could in no way understand it.

The Doctor laughed and replied with the same sort of not-words. Rose scowled. She'd got rather used to understanding everything that was said, but for some reason the TARDIS wouldn't translate this. His not-voice was different from Tyira's, both more and less like a voice at the same time.

Tyira was taken aback at something, and spoke again, trying too hard to imitate him. He only laughed again and shook his head. She said something that made his face darken. For a moment, he didn't reply, and then, quietly, so that Rose could barely even hear him, told her something that made her stop and step back.

Suddenly, the language was being translated again. "But you _can't_ be! No one uses that, not since—but I suppose you'll know that. Some of us respect him, look up to him—that is, another—oh, you know who I mean. To that half, my half, it's—it's as if it's sacred, too good for us. And the rest call him a traitor, a coward—a cursed name."

"I know," he said, bitterly. "I know what the man with my name did. I saw it. I watched. I know what he was thinking when he did it. I know what he felt. I know because he is me."

"But you can't be!"

"You remember the Time War. You remember how terrible it was. You said yourself that you are one of the respecters. But you do not know everything. You were too young, only a child when it happened." His eyes were dark. "Did you see it?"

She lowered her gaze. "I did. Beautiful. Terrible. Hundreds, millions, who should be alive right now. All gone, dead. But you know that, of course you do. Did it..." She swallowed, trying to find the right words. "Was it hard?"

"Hardest thing I've done in my life," he said quietly.

Rose leaned against the wall, pretending to be bored, annoyed; pretending she couldn't understand them. She had to fight tears, couldn't look up at them or they would see how sorry she was. "We should go find this Anatrius guy, yeah?"

"Let us go," said Tyira. Her eyes flashed dangerously. "He does not escape this night alive."

Rose shivered. The desire—no, _need—_for revenge changed people. Tyira was different facing her worst enemy. Different inside. Deadly, cold, merciless.

It was not a good idea to get on the wrong side of a Time Lord.

It ended up that Rose found Anatrius/Andrew. He was in the kitchen. She kept herself busy there until he was the only one, and then turned to him. "Game's up."

"What?" he asked, a flicker of surprise in his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"She means," said the Doctor from the door, "that we know exactly who you are, Anatrius."

"Anatrius, huh?" asked a voice from behind. "Hey, Rasa, isn't that the--" Rose turned to stare as the girl said something vaguely familiar that the TARDIS didn't translate-- "who you've been hunting down since the beginning of the Keepers?"

Everyone in the kitchen stared at the girl. She was young, in her early teens, with dark hair spilling down to her shoulders. Her golden-green eyes, like a cat's, flashed in the light. There was something in the set of her jaw and mouth, in the way her hand held—was that a pen?--that said she was not someone to trifle with.

"Izzy," moaned Tyira. "What are you doing here?"

"Stopping this slime from escaping, for one thing," Izzy said, moving her pen-wilding arm ever so slightly and doing something which made a bright green beam shoot from the end and hit the wall behind Anatrius, skimming the side of his face. He'd been inching towards the door, and he froze, his eyes wide in alarm. "Don't even thing about it, Chronis scum," spat the girl.

" Isalaniverislin," sighed Tyira, "you are the most troublesome girl anyone has ever met. How did you get here?"

"I swam," said Izzy, rolling her eyes. "How do you _think_ I got here, Arie?"

"Knowing you, you probably stole a transjump drive."

"I didn't _steal_ anything," Izzy protested. "It's not like I'm not going to put it back. Oi!" The last was directed at Anatrius, who was inching towards the door again. "I can see you perfectly well, and I'm as good a multitasker as anyone. You try that again, and you'll be lasered through the head faster than you can say Raxacoricofallapatorious." She thought. "Actually, from what Movvie's told me, that's not saying much. You'd get your tongue tied in a knot. Faster than you can say "laser.""

Rose laughed, looked at the Doctor, caught his eyes, and mouthed, _She talks as much as you do!_

He grinned and formed the words _No one talks as much as I do_ back at her.

She rolled her eyes. _You're probably right,_ she replied silently, and smirked.

"Anyways," Izzy was saying. "It looks like you'll be needing my help. This piece of dirt would have escaped three times already if it weren't for me."

"If it wasn't for you, we'd have been paying attention to him," Tyira pointed out. "You wouldn't be distracting us, so he wouldn't have the _chance_ to escape."

"Well, you have a history of letting your prisoners escape," Izzy pointed out. "Though this one's a bit different, hm, Vari?"

Tyira closed her eyes and took a deep breath. " Will you _please_ call me Tyira?"

"I don't like it," said Izzy stubbornly. "It doesn't fit you."

Tyira put her hands over her face. Her voice was muffled when she said, "Izzy, this is why I don't let you come with me when I do these things. You cause more trouble than you're worth, you're stubborn as a pig, and you don't listen to a word I tell you."

"Not letting me isn't the same thing as stopping me," said Izzy. "And I'm not as stubborn as a pig—I'm more stubborn. And I listen to what you tell me, I just don't always agree with it. And the only time I cause trouble is when there isn't any to begin with."

Rose blinked. "Sorry, but can we get on with it? There's a member of Chronis who we've got cornered in the kitchen of a mansion. Shouldn't we be dealing with him?"

"Oh, yeah," said Izzy, a little sheepishly. Everyone turned to Anatrius. There were several seconds of dead silence, and then an angry, toothy song-word exclamation from Tyira.

The enemy Time Lord had vanished.

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait, everyone; I kinda got stuck. Then I had the brilliant idea to introduce Izzy much earlier than I'd planned, and voila! Not only was it the perfect way to put her in so as to show her character, but she got me to the end of the chapter! Please, PLEASE read and review!**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

In Which There Is Confusion, Too Many Rs, and Altogether Too Little Productive Discussion

Izzy shouted something even harsher and spikier, which definitely was _not_ one of the musical not-words. The Doctor looked astounded, Tyira merely looked confused. Izzy glared at the room in general. "What?"

"Where did you learn that?" asked the Doctor, somewhere between impressed and shocked.

"I've never even heard that language," said Tyira. "And I know a lot of languages."

"I—er--well--" faltered Izzy, looking guilty.

Tyira shook her head. "I thought I knew more languages than any other Keeper, and it turns out I'm beaten by a—by a—a young girl."

"Yeah, 'cause you're too good and proper and dignified to say "tensie,"" said Izzy. "Anyway, I don't...er... actually know very many languages. Only about two hundred or something."

"Only?" asked Rose.

The Doctor turned to her, doing a very god job of keeping a straight face despite the laughter in his eyes. "Rose, there are _trillions_ of languages in the universe. _Hundreds_ of trillions, and you think two hundred is a lot?"

"Well, it's very good compared to one!" Rose defended.

"Oh, that's _very_ like you, Izzy," moaned Tyira. "I bet you know two hundred languages fluently, and a smattering of words in every language you could make someone tell you, is that right?"

That, Rose understood. She snorted with laughter. The Doctor snickered. Then, Rose thought of something. "What's a tensie, anyways?"

"Means I'm not a hundred yet," said Izzy. "I'm still too young to be a _proper_ Keeper. We aren't _proper_ 'til we're a hundred fifty. And some of us aren't even then."

"You have to be responsible, reflective, reasonable, reserved--" began Tyira.

"--Restrained, resolved, and _re-spect-ful_," Izzy finished. "Yeah, I know."

"And doesn't that sound familiar?" murmured the Doctor. "I suppose you must have been old enough to know something about how official things worked."

Tyira shook her head. "Not really—I was a—a _tensie_ myself. _Barely,_" she added to Izzy. "But her Ladyship was old enough, and the twins..."

"Old enough to know that _every _little boy and girl will eventually have to learn to be all the Royal Pain-in-the-rear Rs," Izzy clarified. "Because _some_ people _really_ were respectful and responsible and restrained and reflective and reasonable and reserved." She frowned. "The only one I buy is resolved."

The Doctor folded his arms and grinned. Tyira's face paled and her eyes widened. "Izzy! You can't talk about people that way! _Some people _are in this _room!"_

Izzy looked at the Doctor and her hands flew to her mouth. "Sorry!" she cried, her voice muffled. "I didn't mean—that is--"

He laughed. "'S alright," he said. "Not everyone has to be repetitive and routine and regular." He thought for a moment. "Some of us need revitalized with renewing revolutions."

Izzy stuck her tongue out at Tyira. "Can't argue with _that,_ Rien!"

Tyira glared at the Doctor. "Don't encourage her!"

"She's already resolved to resist the reuse of rusty remembered rules," he taunted.

"Shut up," said Tyira, scrunching her face up.

"Who's she?" asked Izzy, looking at Rose. "What's she do?"

"Rose reclaims reality from the rivals and relentlessly renders them ruined."

"Will you stop it?"

"Rasa regularly reprimands a role model on the repetition of Rs."

Tyira closed her eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath. Rose was laughing silently. "Do you _want_ a slap?" asked the lady Time Lord.

The Doctor grinned. "You wouldn't slap me."

"_Thank_ you!"

"You're too restrained, reserved, respectful, reasonable, responsible, and even reverent."

_Thwack!_ Surprisingly, it wasn't Tyira who slapped him across the mouth, but Rose.

"Rose, on the other hand," he mumbled, putting a hand up to his face. "You slap as hard as your mother does."

"Thanks," said Rose cheekily. "Sometimes you need that to take you down a notch. And make you shut up."

"Does he always talk that much?" asked Izzy, quite impressed, both at the Doctor's gob and at Rose's bravery.

"No," Rose said honestly. "Usually, he talks a lot more."

"Alright," said Tyira. "If we're quite through?" This was accompanied by a glare at the Doctor.

"Absolutely," he said, rather more seriously than necessary.

Tyira looked at him suspiciously. Rose rolled her eyes. "Anyways." She crossed the room to lean against the counter and watch them all. "What now?"

"Well, I, for one, am taking Izzy back to where she's _supposed_ to be," supplied Tyira.

"Not if I can help it," said Izzy lightly, and no one bothered to respond.

"Now, I have some advice for you two," said Tyira. "There are Keepers who will be far more suspicious, and who will be far less likely to care who you are or what you've done. There are members of Chronis who won't be so quiet, who know far more than Anatrius. As much as I hate him, he's not the biggest threat."

"No," agreed the Doctor. "Daleks, Cybermen, Autons, Slitheen—I can think of half a dozen more off the top of my head."

"Yeah," said Tyira. "But have you ever asked yourself who brings them into times they don't belong in?"

He looked at her, and Rose shivered. There air had become electric. Izzy backed into the wall, her eyes flicking between the two Time Lords.

"Doctor," said Tyira, "there are things more dangerous, more painful, than, I think, even _you_ have ever seen."

Suddenly, he straightened, his eyes deadly. "You don't understand," he spat. "No one understands. No one can ever understand, and that's the curse of the Destroyer, my curse. No one has seen what I've done; there are choices I've had to make that no one else has ever had to make and no one else will ever have to make, and everyone thinks they understand, and I'm the only one who knows they can't!"

Tyira cowered back and watched as the Doctor stalked away. Rose glanced at Izzy and Tyira, then ran after him. Then, Tyira shouted, "If you sense the shifter disturbance in the vortex, don't go near it. Stay away, far away, because they're waiting!"

He didn't turn, didn't answer, didn't even stop walking as they vanished.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

In Which Rose Takes a Very Short Break, and Disaster Strikes

"What was that about?"

"What was what about?"

He had to do that, didn't he? Act all innocent, like he had no idea what she was talking about. She stared at him, biting her lip, and watched as he ran around starting up the TARDIS. Aliens and monsters and robots and ghosts and every other horrible, frightening thing she'd seen—none of them scared her as much as he did when he was really angry. She hated it, when anyone made him snap, hated the person he became when he was driven to the absolute end of his temper.

"You know perfectly well what I'm talking about."

"Nope." He grinned at her. "No idea."

"Yes, you do have an idea!" she said, anger flaring up inside of her.

"Rose, I don't know what you mean. Why are you shouting at me? You never shout."

"Is that all you can think of to say?" she snapped. "I never _shout_? Well, listen to this, Doctor. I'm shouting now!"

He took a step back, startled. "I--"

"Don't even start," she warned, "'cause I'm not finished. I've tried. I've tried as hard as I could. I've given it everything I have, and no one knows better than you that I've got a lot of energy and determination in me."

"I don't—"

"I'm not finished! Since the day I met you in the basement of that shop, I've been trying. I've put a lot of effort into it, you know, and all the time in between running for our lives and everything. Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against running for our lives."

"Rose, what--"

"Will you put a sock in it? As I was saying, I haven't had much time to do anything else, because in between the running, I've been trying, so, so hard, to understand. I've put time and effort into understanding, and if there's _one_ thing I can't _stand,_ it's when I try to help someone, put my energy into helping them, and they _throw_ it in my _face!"_

"What are you _talking_ about?"

"If no one understands," she hissed, "then I wasted my time trying!" She whirled on her heel to look at the wall. "Set course for Powell Estate."

"Rose."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not _leaving._ I'm not that thick, and I couldn't ever get that angry. I am just so sick of you right now. I'm going to go _home,_ right _now,_ and I'm going to take a couple days off. Or do you have a problem with that?"

He sighed, an empty; defeated sound. "No. No, I don't have a problem with that. I'll take you home and...I don't know. Just...travel around. Until you call. With your phone, I mean, not just calling my name, I mean, I'm a Time Lord and all, but my senses aren't th_at_ good, and anyways, you can't hear things in space, can you, unless you happen to have a radio. Or if you're in a ship, but that doesn't count, because you're not in _space,_ space. Not that I'll ever be in _space,_ space, but I'll most likely be on another planet, so your voice would have to cross space. Time, too, for that matter. And of course voices can't cross time, that would be silly. Well, if sound was like light, then it wouldn't be, because it would travel through space at a very slow pace, and then if we were both very lucky reach me in whatever time I happened to be in. But even I couldn't hear that well, of course, if sound could even travel through space, which of course it can't, so--"

Rose stopped him by laying her hand gently across his mouth. It took surprisingly little effort to be gentle, even though she wanted to smack him as hard as she could. "Oh, be quiet and set the coordinates," she said more calmly. "I'll take a couple days to cool down and then I'll call you—on your phone, of course—and it'll all be back to normal, yeah?"

"Yeah." He closed his eyes and sucked in a breath through his teeth. "Yeah, all back to normal." He stepped around her and set course for Earth.

Rose leaned against the railing. He seemed dejected, suddenly. "Hey," she said lightly, and he glanced up. "Don't you go running off. You're to come back right away when I call you, or I'll set my mum on you. And if I somehow find out you've been to _France...!"_

"No running off," he agreed, shuddering visibly. "And no France, either. Though I don't have any idea why France is off-limits..." The way his eyes skated away from hers as he said it, and the ever-so-slight color that rose into his face, told her that he was quite aware of exactly why France was off-limits, and clearly didn't want to think about it. She didn't contradict him. She wasn't happy with him, but she didn't want another row.

There was a jolt as the TARDIS landed, but she was ready, and she didn't even lose her balance. With a little half-hearted wave, she stepped outside. "I'll see you later, then."

"Yes. Later." He hesitated. "Rose--"

"What?"

"I—I'll see you soon," he finished, not meeting her eyes.

"Yeah." She waved again and walked away. She didn't even turn back when she heard the TARDIS fading out behind her.

Rose walked home in silence, but she was grinning when she opened the door and entered Jackie's flat.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, she heard a high-pitched sound like nothing she'd ever heard before. Actually, it sounded ever so slightly like the engines of the TARDIS, but like a distant cousin of the so familiar sound. Blue light poured down from the sky, and she knew what was going on. And then she was taken by surprise to see Izzy from the other night running towards her.

"Rose!" the girl shouted. "Rose, come quick!"

"Izzy, I'm right here," Rose said quickly. "What's wrong?"

Izzy was nearly in tears. She looked afraid and grabbed Rose's hand tightly. "It's the Doctor," she said. "He's hurt. It looks really bad. I came to get you. I think you'd better come see."

"How badly is he hurt?"

"It's awful," Izzy whispered. "Rose, I'm so sorry. I knew what he was running into, and I came as soon as I knew, but I was too late. I'm not so sure we can save him."

**A/N: Oooh! Cliffie! I didn't like this chapter much, til the ending...but the next one'll be much better. Promise!**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

In Which Something Strange is Revealed

The next thing she knew, Rose was standing in the middle of a lush jungle. Above was the chatter of birds. Somewhere to the right, she could hear the splashing of a stream, and, farther away, the roar of a waterfall. Tall plants swayed as forest creatures made their way along the floor. The whole scene seemed to glow with the vibrant coloring of the world they had entered.

"This way," said Izzy, tugging gently on her sleeve. Rose followed, looking around in amazement. A huge butterfly, each wing as big as one of her hands and colored with blue, gold, and black, fluttered past. A strange bird with a high warbling cry, scarlet feathers, and a long trailing tail swooped overhead. She couldn't stop staring at the vast collection of alien wildlife.

"What is this planet?" she asked.

"It's—hold on, I've no idea, I'd better find out now. We'll have to send a team back here..." Izzy pulled out what looked like a very small book and flipped it open. Rose looked over her shoulder. The pages were paper-thin screens. Izzy flicked through them lightning-fast, then stopped at a "page" showing a picture of stars. She tapped the screen and it focused on a green-and-silver planet labeled Arainia. "Arainia, apparently."

"I'll have to tell the Doctor to take me here again, sometime," Rose said.

"Yeah," Izzy agreed, "but the Doctor in danger aside, this isn't the best time for sightseeing."

"Is there something dangerous here?"

She whistled. "Is there ever!"

"Chronis?"

"Yeah. I'm sure it is. He—the Doctor, I mean—he's been doing exactly what Tyira told him not to do and _looking_ for the spatial-temporal shifter disruption pattern in the vortex. Chronis is all over the place, you know—Her Ladyship says we should be glad for the help. Course, she doesn't know who's helping us out, now, does she? She sure isn't a respecter! Anyway, though, I think Tyira's only annoyed cause she thinks the Doctor's going to get at Anatrius before she can, am I right?"

"You've decided on a nickname," Rose observed.

"Yeah, well, both of you were calling her that, so I figured it's less confusing for everyone that way."

"Makes sense." Rose caught a glimpse of dark blue through the trees and pushed through the undergrowth to the door of the TARDIS.

"He's in there," said Izzy, bouncing from one foot to the other nervously and tugging on her hair. "With my help, he barely could make it back. He collapsed, and then I could get in. Force field was keeping me out, see."

"That's strange," said Rose.

"Yeah, it is, a bit," agreed Izzy with a frown. "I didn't think TARDISes were supposed to do that. Maybe they just keep people out if they don't have permission?"

"That can't be it," Rose said, shaking her head. "Someone got in, a day or two ago, and messed with her. Enough that she wasn't talking to the Doctor."

"That'd explain it then, wouldn't it?" asked Izzy. "She's only letting in people she knows and trusts, because some stranger broke in and tampered with her circuits."

"Makes sense," agreed Rose, then hesitated. "We've got no force field."

"No, but it's not like there are Daleks here," said Izzy impatiently. "Go in, hurry. He might be dying!" At this, a flicker of fear crossed her face.

"Right." Rose threw the doors open and ran inside.

The Doctor was in bad shape. He lay on his back, barely breathing. Rose laid a hand on his chest, first on the left, then on the right. His right heart was weak and stuttering. His left heart wasn't beating at all.

"He's in trouble," Rose breathed. "Izzy, go to the med bay, and _hurry._ You're more likely to recognize stuff than me—you probably have a lot of the same at your base, or whatever."

"Gotchya. I'm on it, Captain." With that, she was gone.

Rose sat back on her heels. What could she do next? See what was wrong, that seemed reasonable. She had no idea, but it stood to reason that since she couldn't see any damage to his head or his throat, those two weak points were fine. His heart, then. His left—that made sense. She fumbled with the buttons on his shirt, her fingers heavy and clumsy. Why was it that humans were _less_ capable when the situation was _more_ desperate? She was pretty sure that in a crisis, the Doctor would think faster, move faster, act faster. Why couldn't she?

She got his jacket and shirt undone and checked to see any sign of injury. Nothing. Wait—_there._ Just left of his heart. It looked like a burn. A laser?

"A laser," she breathed. _It's not like there are Daleks here,_ Izzy had said. It looked like she'd been wrong.

"Rose!"

At the sound of Izzy's voice, Rose turned, and saw something flash in the light as Izzy threw it to the floor. Glass shattered upwards and outwards. For a second, there was nothing. Then, gold glowed like a blanket over the Doctor.

"Nanogenes," Rose said. "Izzy, you're a _genius!"_

But nothing was happening. The nanogenes buzzed around, confused. They formed a bridge to Rose, then darted away, swarming around the Doctor, but not healing him.

"Oi!" shouted Izzy. "Over here! Nanogenes! If you don't know how to fix him, figure it out from me!"

"Izzy, that's not going to work," said Rose, sighing. "Even though you _are_ a Time Lord, your genetics won't be similar enough. They'll only fix him if they have the DNA from his _family,_ no one else's will be close enough--"

The nanogenes had swarmed Izzy anyways. They ran over her for a moment, then swept back to the Doctor. Rose frowned, and then her eyes widened as she heard his breathing deepen. She laid her hands against his hearts and felt them both beating, much more healthily. He stirred, ever so slightly, but didn't wake.

Rose and Izzy looked at each other."When you said that, I remembered I'd learned about nanogenes before," Izzy said. "You're right. They shouldn't have accepted my DNA as a match for his."

They stared from each other to the Doctor and back for a few minutes, then Rose shook her head.

"Let's take him to his room," she said. "Come on, you'll have to help me. As skinny as he is, he's not light."

"Yeah, I know. I did drag him in here when he passed out."

The two of them half-pulled, half-carried the unconscious Doctor down the hall and into one of the rooms the Rose hadn't ever seen before. It was dim, the only light coming in from the open door. Between them and the wall was a desk, cluttered with books and notes. A lamp sat dangerously close to the edge, and next to it lay the discarded peel of a banana. In the far corner was a table, strewn with tools and bits of machinery, in various stages of disassembly. In the other corner was the headboard of the bed.

"Likes to take things apart, doesn't he?" asked Izzy softly as she looked around.

"Yeah." Rose pulled the Doctor halfway onto the bed and moved a notebook, a pen, and a plate with a half-eaten sandwich onto the floor. "Let him rest. Maybe when he wakes up, he can tell us why the nanogenes accepted your DNA."

"Let's have some tea," said Izzy.

They retreated to the kitchen. This, at least, was much tidier than the Doctor's room. Perhaps that was because no one came in here but to make and have their tea. The countertops were so clean they shone, and the copper kettle sat ready for use.

Rose made the tea, and they returned to the console room. "It's just very strange," said Izzy, frowning. "I mean, under normal circumstances, the nanogenes would just want to see any old Time Lord. But if they've already got information from an injured one, they'd want a close genetic match to be sure they get it right."

"Weird," agreed Rose.

Izzy threw herself down into the pilot chair and swung her feet onto the console. "So," she said. "Tell me about your adventures."

"Well, it all started in the basement of the shop I was working at," said Rose, sitting on the railing. "There were these shop dummies, you know, the plastic ones. We had a million of 'em in the basement see, and suddenly they all come to life and start attacking me. Scared me out of my mind, that did. And then the Doctor comes up—he's regenerated since then, back then he had real short hair and... well...big ears, yeah? Bigger, too, but that's hardly surprising."

Izzy leaned forwards, fascinated. "And he killed them?"

"Nah, he didn't kill them. He grabbed my hand and said, "Run!" So we ran. And then..." She began to laugh. "He blew up the shop. It was Friday afternoon, see, everyone'd gone home, and so he set an explosive and we ran for it."

"He's got something about blowing things up, hasn't he?" asked Izzy, grinning.

"Yeah, he has, a bit." Rose tipped her cup and the last few drops of bitter tea, with the hint of sugar and a dash of milk to take the bite from it, ran down the white china and fell onto her tongue. "Tell me about what you get up to. You haven't regenerated yet, I'd guess?"

"Actually, I have," said Izzy, draining her cup. "I bet I'm one of the only Time Lords who's ever regenerated before she settled—that's when you get old enough that you dead end, stop changing, stay the same until your regenerate, hm? Me, I used to have red hair—no, not red. _Scarlet,_ like that bird you saw. Scarlet hair, longer than it is now, and all wavy."

"How did you regenerate?"

"Well," Izzy said, tilting the chair back, "there was a fire, see, that I, er, fell into. Actually, I jumped in, to save a little girl from the raging flames! Because some, ah, locals...they didn't know how to save her, see, so I ran in and --"

Before she could finish, there was a sound like an explosion. The doors flew open, and Izzy shrieked piercingly. Rose covered her ears with her hands, but didn't dare to lower her eyes. Death was at the door.

Slowly, too slowly, it advanced, its sight fixed not on Rose, not on Izzy, but on the console. Rose wasn't really surprised, though she certainly was frightened. She'd thought that the TARDIS was safe, but here they were, with the danger right inside. Yet somehow, all she could think of was how annoying could they _be?_ She'd had enough of them to last her quite a while in London.

She pulled Izzy back, and they pressed themselves back against the far wall as the Dalek drew closer.

**A/N: Oooh! I think I must be famous on for my cliffhanger endings. Not meaning to sound too boastful, but they make ME excited, and I know what's going to happen! Please, please, if you like it, review! And if you don't like it, review! Tell me why, so I can FIX it, dang it! And if you hate it...well...don't read it then! :P I hope no one hates it, though. I like it lots.**


	14. DATAFILE 1

**A/N: Yeah, it's not really a chapter—it's just to tide you all over until I've got the next one up! But it should get you thinking...in the future, this'll be at the beginning instead of the middle! Do you think I should include who their family is? And I know it lists Jack as "who wants to know" how old and Jackie as "old," does anyone know that so I can fix it??**

**By the way, TSC-K1 Is Time-Space Computer—Keeper database 1, if you want to know. **

DATAFILE: Profiles

KEY:

Notes

Reason information is not logged

FROM THE DATABANKS OF TSC-K1

Name: PROTECTED

Alias: The Doctor; John Smith

Race: Time Lord

Age: 905 Earth years

Alliance: Defender

Status: Active

Location: TARDIS Actual location subject to change without notice.

Other: Ally to the Keepers.

* * *

Name: Rose Tyler

Alias: None

Race: Human

Age: 21 Earth years

Alliance: Defender

Status: Active

Location: TARDIS Actual location subject to change without notice.

Other: Ally to the Keepers. Companion to the Doctor.

* * *

Name: PROTECTED

Alias: Marasennalynayr; Senna

Race: Time Lord

Age: 827 Earth years

Alliance: Keepers

Status: Active

Location: Keeper base at PROTECTED

Other: Leader of the Keepers.

* * *

Name: Isalaniverislin

Alias: Izzy

Race: Time Lord

Age: 92 Earth years

Alliance: Keepers

Status: Inactive

Location: Keeper base at PROTECTED

Other: Keeper-in-training.

* * *

Name: Tyirasamovarien

Alias: Tyira

Race: Time Lord

Age: 352 Earth years

Alliance: Keepers

Status: Active

Location: PROTECTED

Other: Caretaker of Isalaniverislin. Second-in-command to Marasennalynayr.

* * *

Name: Jack PROTECTED

Alias: Captain

Race: Human

Age: Who WANTS to know?

Alliance: Defender; Assistant to Defenders

Status: Ready

Location: Cardiff, Wales, Earth

Other: Immortal. Works for Torchwood. Formerly a companion to the Doctor.

* * *

Name: Anatrius

Alias: Andrew

Race: Time Lord

Age: 622 Earth years

Alliance: Chronis

Status: Deceased

Location: None

Other: Killed in an explosion at a building taken by Chronis.

* * *

Name: Jaqueline PROTECTED

Alias: Jackie

Race: Human

Age: Old

Alliance: Selective ATD

Status: Available

Location: London, England, Earth

Other: Assists Rose Tyler and the Doctor when needed.

* * *

Name: Mickey PROTECTED

Alias: None

Race: Human

Age: 23

Alliance: Informant to Defenders; ATD

Status: Available

Location: London, England, Earth

Other: Assists any known defenders, most notably Rose Tyler and the Doctor. Good knowledge of computers, some experience using computers for planetary defense, former companion to the Doctor.

* * *

Name: Delta

Alias: None

Race: Time Lord

Age: PROTECTED

Alliance: Keepers

Status: Deceased

Location: PROTECTED

Other:


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

In Which More Disaster Strikes

"Rose!" screamed Izzy at the top of her lungs. "Rose, there's a _Dalek in the TARDIS!"_

"I--" Rose began, then realized what Izzy was doing. "And the _Doctor_ isn't here to _save us!"_ she shouted.

"We're going to die," sobbed Izzy theatrically. "We're going to die!"

"Please desist in your wailing," the Dalek said. "I shall exterminate you if you refuse."

"A polite Dalek?" asked Rose incredulously. "Since when are Daleks polite?"

"I am not here to exterminate you. I am here to take you. You will come with me or be _exterminated_!"

"Oh, yeah?" Izzy challenged. "You and what army?"

"Do you surrender?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Rose saw the door open and the Doctor look out. "You won't take us alive!" she said.

"We need answers. With the right technology, answers can be retrieved from the mind once the body has perished. If I cannot take you alive, I will take you dead. Exterminate! _Ex-TER-min-ate!"_

The Dalek began firing its laser at them repeatedly. As it came around the console, Rose darted away, trying to keep the controls between it and herself. The laser left scorch marks where it struck the wall. A heavy, musty smell struck her, like darkness and damp and dust. She knew it was the smell of burned coral.

Izzy jumped out of the way of the laser, which still came far too close to striking her. She hisses through her teeth, her dark hair falling in her face, her eyes bright with fear and fury—a deadly combination. She pulled out her pen and fired a beam of light at the Dalek. It screamed as the lens on its eyestalk shattered, blinding it.

"Good shot," Rose called across the control room.

"Watch out," said Izzy in reply. "It can't see, but it can still shoot you."

"Can you get it with your laser?" the Doctor asked.

Three consecutive flashes of green light flew at the Dalek, leaving no mark but three tarnished points on the destructive alien's golden armor. "It's not strong enough!"

"Exterminate!" the Dalek screamed, enraged. It fired again and again, shooting blindly at anything in its path. "Exterminate!"

"We've got to get rid of it somehow," Rose said. "There's got to be some way to—to blow it up, or something, yeah?"

"We need some kind of weapon," said Izzy desperately. "I didn't think there would be any Daleks here! I knew it was bad—we've been watching this place and trying to figure out what to do for years—but not this bad!"

"Why's there a Dalek on the TARDIS to begin with?" asked the Doctor. "How did it get in?"

"The forcefield was down," explained Rose, sidestepping another shot.

"Well, why was that?"

"_I_ don't know! You're the one who can talk to her! Ask her yourself—_after_ we get the Dalek_ off_ the TARDIS!"

"I'll do that," said the Doctor, and neatly dodged the laser. "Oh, come on. You can do better than that, surely!"

"Exterminate!" it wailed. "I must exterminate Doctor and assistants!"

"I'm nobody's assistant," said Rose, annoyed.

"And I'm not even on their team," Izzy added. "I know lots more than either of them does. I'd be awful valuable to your masters!"

"Exterminate! Exterminate!" It fired at Izzy. She was all the way across the room, behind the console.

There was a shattering sound, and Rose covered her face with her hands as glass exploded outwards. The pieces were so small they were like motes of dust, floating in the room, making the very air deadly and blinding them all with a glittering cloud. Through the sparkling, whirling storm of glass, Rose made out a lot of blue light swarming around the dim shape of the Dalek. The only thing she could hear was a wailing, chilling and pained.

The cloud of glass dust settled to the floor, like a blanket of snow. The Dalek glowed blue, blindingly bright. The keening wail died away and everything was silent. But not everything was still. The Dalek wasn't—it was growing, or at least the light was, becoming taller and wider. And then the light faded.

The Dalek was no longer gold, or at least not entirely. It was mostly black, with gold up the sides. It was also at least twice the size it had been. It shimmered with blue, like it was reflecting the sky. Its weapons looked far more powerful. And its eyestalk, fully repaired, glowed scarlet.

For a moment, it glared at them all. Then, it said, "I...am...Chrono Dalek!"

"What did you do?" asked Rose, stepping back. "How did you get so—so--"

"This is not over," said Chrono Dalek. "This will end with all three of you—dead! But my power is not fully restored. We are not merciful. We do not surrender. You will die!"

And then, just like that, it disappeared.

The Doctor silently walked over to the console. He laid his hands on the controls, oblivious to the glass lying on the panels. "Gone," he said in a hollow voice. "Broken."

"Doctor, what happened?" asked Rose anxiously. "How did the Dalek become that—that--Chrono thing?"

"It absorbed all the TARDIS's energy," he said. "It killed her."

"So we're trapped?"

"No," said Izzy. "Unless it's magically made the whole of the vortex vanish, we can get away. Matter of fact, even if it _has_ done we can get away, I think. Problem is, we've got no idea where that thing went, and if we run into it, we're in big trouble."

Rose crossed the room to stand next to the Doctor and laid her hand on his. "We've got to get out of here," she said quietly.

"She's gone," he repeated, stunned. "Gone. Dead."

Izzy made a huffing noise and turned around. "I'm going to wait outside. When the pair of you are ready to leave, come get me."

"Doctor," said Rose as the doors closed.

"Gone," he said, and his head fell to his chest. "No more. Completely dead."

Rose wasn't paying attention. She was watching as a faint golden glow settled over the edge of the console. She glanced up to the very highest part of the ceiling, and saw gold there, too. "If she's beyond repair, than how come she's being fixed?"

He looked up to the ceiling and down at the console. "Nanogenes? But how...why...?"

"You were hurt," said Rose. "I think a Dalek must have gotten you. You might have regenerated, or even died outright, but Izzy got the nanogenes...they hadn't seen a Time Lord before, though. They didn't try to heal you—just came over to me. And then they went over to Izzy...and it seems like she was good enough to use as a model on how to fix you. But I don't understand how, or why. They shouldn't have, should they?"

"No," he said. "They shouldn't." He wasn't looking at her. He was watching the nanogenes, coming together, leaving remade glass in their wake. Like sealing up a cut, Rose reasoned. Making new skin, knitting it together. A bigger cut meant more time to heal it.

"What's going to fill up where the energy was?" she asked. "Will she come back to life on her own?"

"I don't know," he said. "I don't even know how they're fixing her. They shouldn't know what to do. They shouldn't know how."

"But they do," she said.

For a moment, they were both silent, watching the ship rebuilt.

"You should tell Izzy," said the Doctor.

"Alright," agreed Rose. She kept her hand over his for a few seconds, then pulled away and stepped outside. "Izzy?"

"You guys ready to leave?" Izzy ran over, pulling out something silver. Her teleporter, presumably.

"Not exactly," said Rose. "Come in and see."

She opened the door and they came back inside. They joined the Doctor, and all three of them watched as the nanogenes did their slow, steady work.

There was nothing to do but wait.

**A/N: So, how was it? Am I evil to my characters or what? Poor TARDIS. Poor Doctor. So many mysteries surrounding our heroes! They still don't know much about Chronis, and even less about the Keepers. And now, on top of it all, the nanogenes! What lies in store for them once the TARDIS is repaired? If you wish to find out (or have any theories/guesses/suggestions!) you should review! By the way, thanks to Soreye for the idea with the nanogenes! You're fantastic!**


End file.
